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Research

Research projects on low-impact development:

This document considers ‘What are the planning barriers to low impact developments in rural areas in Britain and how might they be overcome?’

This paper considers the current situation regarding LID

This paper examines the effectiveness of the new TAN6 ‘One Planet Development’ policy in Wales

This paper consists of an in-depth investigation into the first ecovillage to come under the new planning initiatives in Wales (Tir y Gafel)

An exploratory case study of a low impact development ecovillage in Wales, focusing on the role of scientific knowledge within the project. (Master Thesis)

This thesis is concerned with the energies of activism, and uses an exploration of the concept of energy to rethink the agency of activism, rethinking: what counts as an act, who counts as an actor, and in particular how action is produced in activism. The empirical aspect of this research involved three case studies of UK climate change activism, each of which demonstrates a particular form of activism: activism in the form of direct action through the protest camps of Camp for Climate Action, activism as a more mundane and regular part of life through the meetings and events of a Transition Town group, and activism as a lifestyle in itself through the low-impact living and building practices of the Lammas eco-village.

The focus of this dissertation is on the lives of residents at Tir y Gafel. It demonstrates that the residents are not concerned with economic development, in the same way as the Welsh Assembly and international community are but are concerned with creating a lifestyle that enables them to add to the resources within the environment that sustain their lives on the land.

This dissertation focuses on the application of Building Regulations to low impact construction.
Following an initial investigation into a litigious dispute between Pembrokeshire County Council’s Building Control department and the residents of a Lammas, concern was raised that the Approved Documents were being misapplied to low impact construction.
The aim of the dissertation is to ascertain to what extent these claims and concerns are valid in order to establish if it was the approach to applying Building Regulations that is the cause of this dispute or whether a more fundamental incompatibility between the Building Regulations and low impact development exists.

“It is a time to think anew, a time to express anew, a time to relate. This study is a piece auto-ethnographical / biographical research into the lives of people living in a Low Impact Eco-Village in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The research has led me to reflect not solely on the place of low impact development in Wales, but also the relation of such lifestyle paradigms on notions of the domestic and inter-national political spheres. How we understand national narratives in a world of inherent connectivity, it is, then, an exploration of our body and eco-system – how we interact and sense the world.’

The emergence of Lammas as an organization, and its engagement with the planning process represents something new: a convergence of discourses, a jumping of scale, and the production of an in-between space, positioned on the cusp of ‘mainstream’ and ‘alternative’.
The thesis looks at Lammas and the Low Impact Development (LID) movement as a process of governance for sustainable development in which the planning system and other state actors are involved but not the central forces. It breaks down the case study into themes to examine the complex processes, identities, and production of space resulting from the interactions between the ecovillage residents and the state.

The primary aim of this research, is to identify whether low impact development could be a realistic option in helping stem the current UK housing crisis. This study will try and establish whether all three fundamental elements of social economics and environmental constraints can be effectively integrated into LID. The study will aim to establish whether the ‘Welsh One Planet Development Policy’ could be successfully put out to the rest of the UK. A similar policy could help low income rural people e.g. LID communities, individuals with small holding or small farmers that want to live this modest and sustainable life.

This study is concerned with analysing the nature of radical politics and its interaction with the construction of the rural. Low Impact Developments are producing a rural space which is different from the mainstream. The post-productivist era is still emerging, the rural landscape in this climate is seen as a process rather than a collection of objects. Low impact developments are finding a space within this environment. More than finding a space they are creating an alternative culture of innovations and livelihoods, which have fundamental implications for the rural environment and nature of governance.

This dissertation examines the successes and failures of current and past UK policy which allows for the construction of self-build, off-grid, sustainable housing in the open countryside and establishes a set of guidelines for the formation of new such policies. It explores the role of this type of housing, which has come to be called ‘low-impact development’ (LID), in the highly contentious rural housing debate, and how it is considered by LID activists, theorists and residents to provide a key answer to the rural crisis, meeting demands for affordable housing, boosting local economies, protecting the natural landscape and biodiversity and enhancing local culture.

This research aims to explore and analyse the narratives that people form for their motivations for moving to an eco-community, in particular looking at how they present and interconnect their life circumstances, motivations and values, and how this informs a sense of identity. Currently, no other research contextualises perceived motivations for moving to an eco-community into a holistic narrative, so this dissertation offers a novel contribution to the body of research on eco-communities.

Explores the emerging and potential land rights initiatives that can
inspire a transition towards a new rural economy, based on thriving rural life and ecological agriculture. Through investigating the current movement for land rights, with interviews and direct observations of actors involved, it will attempt to draw out the relevant themes and central issues facing the movement for land rights, and its ability to push for a new rural economy. Contact samsonhart1@gmail.com for more details

In this research, I focus on the role of conflict on the group development process. Based on Tuckman’s group development model, I try to understand how conflicts arise, their features, and what this entails for group development. This thesis is researched with ethnographic methods, at Lammas, a young ecovillage in Wales set up in 2009. Based on participating observation and semi-structured interviews, the results are as follows: conflicts originated in external structural features and incompatible values and ideals. Manon Bertrand

Research regarding the performance of Lammas in relation to the planning targets: